A Michigan Yankee In Emperor Akihito’s Court

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As previously mentioned, the Mooneyes Street Car Nationals is an event where 1200 vehicles come together to show off how pimped they are, minus Xzibit or Ryan from West Coast Customs. Given the sheer number of attendees and the high levels of bespoke work put into the restoration and subsequent modification of these classics, it takes something really special to stand out among the crowd.

This 1960 Cadillac DeVille didn’t just stand out, it reached out, grabbed me by the collar, and pulled me in for an embrace. I was starstruck, and soon gravitated towards it as if under some kind of love spell.

Bathed in a pastel hue of bubblegum pink, the car exudes a warm, inviting presence that can only be found in Detroit-built sheet metal from the post-war boomer years. The paint has been masterfully laid down with artistic shadowy details accentuating the vehicle’s curvy body lines.

The economic upswing of the 1950s made it possible to chrome out bumpers and grills to excess levels of bling, and nowhere else but on a contemporary Cadillac would you find this much of the shiny plating. A true player’s car.

The rear end is a quintessential study of vintage Americana; from the long sloping boot lid, to the upper and lower fins that allude to the public’s fascination with the new fangled jet-powered planes of the day. Even the tail lights were made to resemble the exhaust ports of a supersonic turbine engine, complete with glowing red burners.

I wasn’t alone in my thoughts; I spent most of my time fighting off the hordes of show-goers that came to ogle at the bountiful beauty. At just over 18-feet long this girl is not your average Tokyo runabout. People were more impressed with her size first and her fine intricacies second.

The interior is just as meticulously attended to as the exterior, with the same color scheme being applied everywhere the eye could see. A reminder of a bygone era, a rotary dial telephone sat prettily on the center console. While some may think it nonsense to include such modern technology as mobile communication into a vintage car, in the late 1950s the ability to make wireless calls from your vehicle was indeed a reality. Although, the model of phone seen here, an early 1960s Bell A/B 554, was made to be mounted on actual white walls, rather than whitewall tires.

Another technology that seemed out of place, a portable television set, is affixed to the center dash. This is a real TV5-303 ‘micro TV’ produced by Sony in 1962; an amazing five years before the James Bond film You Only Live Twice would make a similar device famous. Another thing we loved about the inside of the car – the magnificently designed, albeit pain to read, steering column-mounted gauge cluster.

Being dubbed a roadster, this drop-top had an elegant tonneau cover that matched everything else that was pink on the car, in essence extending the swooping rear half of the entire automobile. Custom leatherwork and headrests make you want to sit right down and enjoy a cruise around the city of Tokyo.

In the same vein as Dino’s Street Car Nationals spotlight on the white Hachiroku, I really wish I got a chance to see under the hood of this car. With all the attention paid to making the interior and exterior completely on point, I can only imagine how awesome the engine bay must look. I guess there is always 2017, or maybe Ikura’s Ame Fest later on this year.

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